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Top 5 economic activities in Cape Town
3 June 2022
Best known for its beautiful beaches, majestic mountain and vibrant lifestyle, Cape Town is revered as the ideal holiday spot. But the city isn’t just a pretty face – it provides the second largest contribution to employment in the country and is hailed as a thriving business hub of international standards.
The Connected City
Tech start-ups and entrepreneurs flock to the Cape’s sunny shores for many reasons and connectivity is one of them. With a wide network of fibre-optic cables, Wi-Fi is easy to find, fast and mostly reliable which allows for the popular remote-working model to flourish. Trendy but casual, quaint but international, Cape Town is the perfect setting for large innovative companies like animation and film to smaller bespoke businesses in fashion, sustainability, and photography.
Flexible workspaces are sprouting up rapidly which means you can book a boardroom or hire a video-telecoms system or sound studio whenever the need arises. This kind of diverse working ecosystem means networking is a breeze, allowing like-minded workers to combine talents and grow new business.
The Grand Tour
It’s obvious that one of Cape Town’s most profitable economic activities would be tourism and the industry is gathering steam again post Covid. Cape Town really offers everything imaginable to every kind of tourist – from luxury, slow-paced indulgent meanders to adrenalin-pumping adventure-packed getaways.
The iconic Table Mountain is a huge drawcard for foreigners as is the historic waterfront and pristine beaches. Activity-led attractions are account for another large injection for the economy, including wine-tasting tours, shark-cage diving, surfing, and sandboarding retreats, parasailing and even penguin-spotting to name a few.
The history of the Cape is also a point of interest for many, with the compelling Robben Island a boat-trip away and the castle, noon cannon and Cape Dutch farmhouses adding to this old-world charm. Tourists are spoiled for choice in places to stay, with the world-famous Mount Nelson hotel leading the charge to celebrity favourite Ellerman House and Cape Grace as well as hundreds of Airbnb options and cheerful, affordable hotels in the city centre.
Gone Fishing
Fisheries and the fishing industry are an incredibly important economic activity in Cape Town and support both the livelihood and sustenance of many communities.
Providing employment for around 140000 people, the commercial and subsistence use of the ocean as a food source is critical to job creation and nutrition and the Western Cape is responsible for 85% of SA’s fish export.
Hugged by the Indian and Atlantic on each side, Cape Town itself is full of fishing hubs with large commercial operations out of the Cape Town harbour and Hout Bay and smaller ventures out of Kalk Bay and Noordehoek. South Africa’s export of seafood outweighs its import and adds a considerably to the international whitefish market – like hake, sole and kingklip.
Due to the world’s increasing interest in and passion for sustainability and healthy living, fish and seafood are becoming more and more popular and more frequently consumed, making the industry an important money-maker for the country.
Property Perspective
With its incredible scenery and location, its thriving business and laidback lifestyle, who wouldn’t want to live and work in the Mother City? And they do – which makes Cape Town’s residential property market the biggest of all eight metros.
41% of the property market in Cape Town is sectioned as luxury, which includes properties over R1.2 million rand and were found across the CBD, Atlantic Seaboard and Southern Suburbs of the city.
Cape Town is also seen as one of the most stable property markets in the country because of its appeal to international investors. From penthouses to apartments, bolt holes to bungalows and sprawling family manors and mansions, the resale opportunity is consistently good for almost all structures in many areas.
Whether it’s used for living and working, or for creating passive income through holiday, short or long-term rentals or venue and shoot hire, the property market in Cape Town is a sure thing.
Agricultural Advantage
Agriculture, agribusiness, and agri-processing form an impressive and important economic activity for Cape Town and the larger Western Cape.
Different weather conditions across the province allow for a wide variety of crops that keep production running all year round, maximizing potential and extending the diversity of the yields. Along with this ideal setting, our international port and sophisticated processing capabilities and facilities gives the region a seamless manufacturing advantage.
With the option of road, rail, sea, and air transport solutions as well as cold-chain structure, getting the goods to market or to their next destination is timely and reliable. Citrus, wine, grapes, corn and wool make up the biggest value in exports, but livestock, meat, dairy and wheat and barley are rich sources of production as well.
